Amazon undoubtedly one of the world’s leading online retailers. The company uses advanced digital practices to offer a range of products and unique user experiences. These capabilities enable Amazon to soar above its competitors such as e-bay. Its competitive advantage arises from the desire to innovate, remarkable customer service, and the lowest cost pricing (Howen, 2014).
The company drives the personalization of customer experience to another level that competitors can only try to emulate. Ideally, the company seeks to engage registered users in specific conversions to influence personalized product recommendations. Amazon also uses its homepage to highlight recommended products and monitor customers’ browsing and purchasing patterns to help it improve on recommended products. This strategy enables it to build a huge pool of contented and loyal consumers (Howen, 2014). Furthermore, the company’s operations are characterized by low-cost structures that are in line with the diverse financial capabilities of its customers. Through online selling, the retailer does not spend in physical retail stores. Amazon seeks to cut costs further by strategically investing in many fulfilment centres and existing ones to reduce delivery time and shipping costs. The resultant time and cost savings are enjoyed by consumers (Jurevicius, 2016).
Remarkable customer service offers the company immense competitive advantage over other online retailers. The company’s mission centres on the satisfaction of customers’ needs and preferences. Amazon ranks better than Google and Apple in consumer satisfaction, therefore, it enjoys repeat business and increased sales. Customer service impacts business success as it contributes to the company’s bottom line (Howen, 2014). On the other hand, innovation and creativity enable Amazon to outwit its competitors. Such success is manifested through unique offerings, which include Amazon Prime, partnerships with the United States Postal Services, and the introduction of drone delivery services. Specifically, Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping and access-to-streaming services. On the other hand, the partnership deal with UPS and drone delivery services revolutionized the delivery time of packages (Howen, 2016).
Indeed, low-cost structures, a wide product range, unique customer services, and innovation and creativity make Amazon wade off competition from other online stores. These factors enable Amazon to work towards achieving its mission of becoming the “most customers centric” company across the globe. Besides, its decision of focus on customers has led to satisfied customers and created more traffic on Amazon’s sites. As a result, the company has witnessed increased sales and remarkable growth.
References
Howen, A. (2014). 5 Reasons Amazon wins at e-commerce: Retrieved June 21, 2016 from <http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2014/03/03/5-reasons- amazon-wins-at-e-commerce.aspx>
Jurevicius, O. (2016). Amazon SWOT analysis 2016: Retrieved June 21, 2016 from <https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/amazon-swot- analysis.html>
